Influencers, now a slowly fading cliché in the Internet’s tableau vivant, found success articulating the cult of personality, and marketing themselves as direct-to-consumer-goods. The shift away from this algorithmic surrender can be traced to the macro and micro “creator economies” spawned by the likes of Patreon, Substack, OnlyFans and even... See more

The influencer market will be, by some estimates, worth close to $15 billion in just a few years, with hundreds of thousands of people earning sizable income from viral videos and social posts. By Karat’s own count, there are over a million professional full-time creators globally who earn at least $80,000 a year—but many of them have trouble... See more

Even this generation’s superstars rethink old norms. The 19-year-old TikTok star Josh Richards had flirted with being a brand ambassador for Red Bull. When I asked him why he passed, he looked at me quizzically—why, he wondered, should he be the vessel for someone else’s wealth creation? That’s the playbook for celebrities of yesteryear. Instead,... See more